RESTORING OPTIMISM AND CREATING FUTURES TOGETHER FOR AMERICA’S PROTECTORS
Recognized As Best-Practice, Non-Profit Specialists Exclusively Devoted To Helping Soldiers, Police, Fire, EMT – and Their Families Recover From The Psychological Harm Caused by Career Induced Stress
Helping America’s Heroes SINCE 2010
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NEWS RELEASE OCTOBER 17, 2022
Warrior to Citizen, Inc. (W2C) Announces the Completion of a Highly Effective Program for Army Ranger Candidates Faced With the Loss of Two of Their Team Members on Mt. Yonah on August 14, 2022.
“It was a great success based on the evaluations from all of 50 participants,” said Mike Roberts, President & CEO at Warrior to Citizen, Inc. (W2C).
Positive Impact
Participant feedback from the 50 attendees was that the training and counseling provided made it easier to deal with the grief with the losses of the Rangers that occurred in this training accident. Some of their impressions were:
“Exceeds expectations” “Very much enjoyed the entire event” “…speaking one-on-one with the counselors was very effective…” “The content … was very introspective and supportive” “this whole workshop definitely exceeded my expectations” “I came in not wanting to come and I’m leaving grateful that I did with new tools” “Great Team, Great Work”
A Big “Thank You” to all the donors and others who made this program possible. It is very much appreciated by everyone.
Mike Roberts, President & CEO at Warrior to Citizen, Inc. (W2C).
Trauma Induced Stress – In Its Many Forms and Effects
Members of the Armed Services, first responders/public safety officials and their families across the nation often face psychological and emotional wounds borne of trauma-induced stress from their experiences on front lines of America’s safety.
For so many of these warriors, their struggles tragically can end up including drinking, drugs, passivity or even violent acting out and suicides. So many express feelings of depression, sadness, loneliness and separation, emotional isolation and intimacy starvation. Too many have feelings of fear, frustration and anger, preoccupation, high stress, anxiety, nervousness and difficulty in focusing.
Sadly, these conditions lead to the destruction of relationships, families, careers and ultimately lives
Too often the warrior also finds it difficult to get past the adrenaline inducing negative thrill of excitement from danger or high- risk situations. Too often, the hero misses the unduplicated closeness and camaraderie of those who have shared these highly stressful experiences.
For those heroes who have experienced degrees of trauma-induced brokenness, treatment histories overwhelmingly demonstrate clearly that go-it-alone, individual, isolated or one-off treatments of just the warrior alone are far less effective in restoring their lives and enabling them to transition successfully and happily back into civilian society.
We Solve These Problems
Today, there are approximately 6 million post 9-11 military service members and first responders/public safety officials in the U.S. – many face a devastating reality.
50% of the post 9-11 veterans say they have had emotionally traumatic, distressing experiences, including Moral Injury
Nearly 1 million have been diagnosed with PTSD - National Guard studies 2006-2008 demonstrate that soldiers experience PTSD at rates above 70% of the time following their second consecutive deployment
Approximately 30% of the nation’s first responders now suffer with both PTSD and depression
Between 28-33 warriors each day are the victims of suicide, according to V.A. statistics. Too many have endured broken families, depression, anxiety, isolation, feelings of helplessness and substance abuse.
The SEVEN points of distinction which make W2C programs highly effective Best Practice
Among 40,000 U.S. wounded warrior programs, since 2010, W2C answers the missing treatment needs as one of very few to deliver the following critical portfolio of treatment elements:
1. Exclusive, singular focus on mental, emotional and spiritual “brokenness healing”
W2C focuses on restoration of the warrior/first responder and family for long term success – success based on objectively measured metrics;
2. Customized trust-building in advance
W2C’s program is one of very few that is customized to each warrior and his/her family based on one-month-in-advance intensive pre-program goal setting and interactions with the warrior and family before the formal sessions begin. This builds a special relationship of sustained trust between the warrior and his/her team of counselors, chaplains and psychologists/psychiatrists that facilitates the healing.
3. On-going involvement of warrior families in warriors’ treatment
and integration with psychological treatment strategies of family systems;
4. Consistent, sustained support/ treatment
over as much as six months – not short-term, quick-fix approach: The design of W2C’s no-cost-to-warriors program also overcomes these three practical day-to-day obstacles that too often get in the way of sustained success of many other programs: cost, access and time/convenience.
5. One of the most comprehensive packages of diverse treatment modalities
for maximum effectiveness – not one-shot, one-type;
6. Ability to deliver program nationally to any warrior/anywhere/anytime
(digitally in 2021) and via scheduled face-to-face programming in various locations – employing “train and certify the trainers” approach for maximum national reach and effect. All trainers served in uniform.
7. Training the trainers approach
Train the trainers program for counselors, psychologists and chaplains – – for maximum national reach and impact. All W2C staff are current/former members of the military, bringing special understanding to the warriors’ re-integration and healing challenges.
Our Overall Benefit
- W2C saves lives, marriages, families, reduces child abuse and restores warriors to happy, satisfying lives
- Reestablishes loving, trusting family bonds/community/hope/optimism
W2C DIFFERENCE
One of the most effective, family-based therapeutic programs with objectively assessed metrics
It is delivered at no charge to warriors and their families by interdisciplinary professionals, all of whom served in uniform.
Regarded as best practice in successfully addressing divorce and suicide prevention.
- Directly addresses broken relationships.
- Over last 20 years, broken relationships have been the major causal factor for the highest documented divorce rate and resulting suicides in this population.
Documented Successes Since 2010
Since 2010, thousands of warriors have benefited from the counseling and programs of experts who have received the specialized w2c training. W2c also has worked directly with hundreds of warriors together with their families from the army, national guard, navy, air force, armed services chaplains as well as the veterans’ administration.
These successes result from four types of W2C intervention:
- Psycho education – where warriors and families learn about what drives them psychologically and how to use this new-found awareness to contribute to their treatment;
- Coaching – where warriors/families participate in peer group therapeutic sessions;
- Counseling – where warriors/families receive intensive one-on-one and family counseling over as much as a six month period;
- V.A. intervention – where W2C helps intervene with V.A. patients who are experiencing emergency crisis conditions like contemplation of suicide.
Designed by America’s Heroes to Help Other Families Like Theirs
W2C Programs are tailored to the special needs of each group served. Each has been designed by veterans and first responders collaborating with university and mental health professionals.
This has produced programs demonstrated to make lasting improvements in relationships and family members’ ability to remain resilient and bounce back from stressors.
The Program for Warrior and Family Restoration is based on this truth…
“Warriors’ success navigating through and beyond their traumatic experiences depends in large part on how resilient they are. The quality of their close personal and family relationships are the most significant determinant of resiliency — as noted in nearly every review or study of resilience in the last 50 years.” (New York Times journalist and author, Eilene Zimmerman).
The W2C approach is rare in that it builds 7 key overlooked life skills critical to the restoration of the warrior and his/her family
- Listening and communication skills to avoid misunderstandings
- Hyper-vigilance skills to identify, articulate and cope with the moments of feeling
“on guard” or threatened - Moral injury and guilt communications – how to identify and speak out about the injuries that cause shame and guilt
- How to forgive
- How to cope with and share un-addressed and often un– articulated grief and loss
- How to deal with common areas of family conflict including money, sex and
intra-family dynamics - Ways to assure on-going family success including periodic honest relationship assessments.
W2C Program Descriptions
There are six proven programs we deliver. They are currently being extended for online delivery so the number of families we can help will be greatly expanded.
HOME LIFE TRANSITION PROGRAM
The HLTP equips couples to identify and address challenges facing their marriage. This programs teaches couples how to communicate better and effectively deal with issues they face.
This program is designed for marriage enrichment based on the needs of over 4,000 returning veterans from warfare to civilian life.
It directly enables skills development and provides accountability for married couples – helping couples over a six-month period to manage the stress – induced problems of separation, hyper-vigilance and long-term exposure to threatening environments.
Modular in design, the core curriculum is provided over a series of four-day retreats or one 28-day period. The program has been designed by military psychologists and academic professionals incorporating healing interventions, psycho- education, individual/group and family clinical counseling modalities.
These programs feature guided re-integration of the family back into their community including developing friendly networks. Post retreat, couples have access to ongoing counseling from therapists, coaches and chaplains for five more months.
Couples learn how to communicate better and effectively deal with the issues they face and how they respond to each other, specifically including building trust and strengthening communication skills.
Couples gain deep understanding of individual needs, interpretations and obstacles to intimacy. It is a process for enriching marital health.
MORAL INJURY PROGRAM
These workshops focus on defining moral injury and how it is distinct from PTSD. This program explores the causes of moral injury and what stressors contribute to it. Attendees leave with a better sense of how spirituality fits in their lives and a better understanding of how to manage guilt in association with moral injury. This gives them the tools to flatten the impact of moral injury.
The exponential rise in suicides related to moral injury places W2C to see as a thought/practice leader in this field. Originally the program was designed by a Navy Seal and Ranger team to address the needs of drone pilots and their unique experiences.
Different from the PTSD program, the moral injury program addresses the moral injury, moral judgment, shame and guilt that many warriors experience – along with the accompanying anger, addiction or depression. The program is important because moral injury has no diagnosis or treatment protocols.
A 1-to-2 day program, it defines and builds understanding of what moral injury is, what stresses cause and contribute to it and how it affects individuals including how it differs from PTSD and the significantly higher risk of suicide than from PTSD.
The W2C program builds awareness and personal skills, including how spirituality fits into their lives so that warriors can traverse their emotional landscape and challenging conditions and receive an effective intervention strategy and treatment plan to manage guilt.
SUICIDE PREVENTION AND INTERVENTION PROGRAM
Approximately 20% of the time, the 28-33 warriors who daily are the victims of suicide give no signs of their contemplation of this act. W2C’s suicide program is designed to change the culture facing the warrior and his/her family, giving them a new cultural of health – based on listening, learning and leading.
Developed by a retired chaplain colonel, the program has been used with over 17,000 service members and veterans nationally and has been employed to intervene in more than 1,200 suicide episodes to date. This program often is provided in conjunction with the moral injury program.
PTSD PROGRAM
W2C’s program represents one of the most comprehensive approaches to PTSD using current research and the most effective evidence-based clinical experiences to assist warriors and their families to make the stressful transition from warrior to citizen in as healthy, effective and functional manner as possible today.
The program involves 28 days of intensive work with the warrior – and for the warriors’ families and children, over four long weekends. It focuses on three phases: psychoeducation, skills acquisition and practice application every day and week of the warriors‘/families’ experience.
The program consists of group, individual and family therapy sessions involving transactional and narrative therapies, as well as stress inoculation training. These are all designed to enable warriors to first appraise, frame/reframe and describe in healthy ways the narrative concepts of their difficult transitions and then to learn how to cope effectively with their challenges.
The program also integrates such other key elements as conflict resolution, career/vocational development, spirituality components and physical activity/exercise. Warriors/families also are offered 24 hour/day crisis management and ongoing counseling sessions.
CHILD RESILIENCE AND TRAUMA PROGRAM
This program gives the children of our military and first responders the coping tools specific to their needs… so that they “thrive“ and not just “survive.“ Designed by a behavioral psychologist in conjunction with W2C, this 2-day program is operated concurrently or separately within other programs and is based on the “narrative” psychological method to address trauma and children ages 6- 17.
Already delivered to over 200 children of warriors, the program reflects the many and different challenges faced by these children, unlike other kids in their communities – affecting them at home, in school and with their friends.
The program enables children to manage stress as part of the family unit and to bolster their feelings of security and stability, improve their self-esteem, increase their self-efficacy and develop a repertoire of adaptive coping skills.
This is accompanied by enhancing children’s protective factors which help buffer for them the adverse aftermath of stress and trauma at home and, as well, the promotive factors that facilitate their adjustment.